Sleep is significantly underappreciated and undervalued component of health and lifestyle. As such, researchers in Australia’s Flinders University conducted a prospective, observational study using data from the West Australian longitudinal Raine Study Generation 2 cohort of 554 works of age 22 years.

They found that in the subjects, total workplace productivity loss was up to 40% in those with clinical sleep disorders compared to those without clinical sleep disorders.

“This is equivalent to total workplace productivity loss (followed up on multiple occasions across 12 months) of about four weeks for young people with clinically significant sleep disorders, compared with less than one week for those without,” stated Amy Reynolds, one of the study’s researchers and author.

“They’re at work, but they’re just not working to their best capacity or potential,” furthered Reynolds.

Our devaluing of sleep effects everything from our relationships to physical performance, to cognitive abilities. Not putting effort into our sleep health in exchange for mindless scrolling and television watching, is destroying our ability to reach our fullest potential in life, not just in work, but our dreams and ambitions too. Place value in sleep.

AC Reynolds et al. Insomnia and workplace productivity loss among young working adults: a prospective observational study of clinical sleep disorders in a community cohort. The Medical Journal of Australia. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52014